Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe painorsuffering on a person for various reasons, including punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions of torture are restricted to acts carried out by the state, but others include non-state organizations. A variety of methods of torture are used, including psychological methods to provide deniability. Beating is the most common form of physical torture. Most victims of torture are poor and marginalized people suspected of crimes, although torture against political prisoners or during armed conflict has received disproportionate attention. Torture is prohibited under international law for all states under all circumstances and is explicitly forbidden by several treaties. Opposition to torture stimulated the formation of the human rights movement after World War II, and torture continues to be an important human rights issue. (Full article...)
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Lord Kelvin (26 June 1824 – 17 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer. Born in Belfast, he was Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, where he undertook significant research, including on electricity and the formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. He was also the first to determine the correct value of absolute zero, and the Kelvin scale of temperature is named in his honour. Kelvin received the Copley Medal in 1883, served as the president of the Royal Society from 1890 to 1895, and in 1892 became the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords. This photograph, taken circa 1900, shows Kelvin resting on a binnacle (the stand for a marine compass) of his invention, and holding a marine azimuth mirror. Photograph credit: T. & R. Annan & Sons; restored by Adam Cuerden
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